The date of settlement is given as 1861. The Headache Springs Medical
Laboratory of the Confederate Army operated here during the war. One
of nine facilities located west of the Mississippi, this is where
Confederate doctors made medicine (and medicinal whiskey) from local
roots, bark and mineral waters from the springs. They were, as the
historical marker says, the "medicines of desperation."

In 1936, county maps showed a church, cemetery and school for Universe.

The school was consolidated with the Tyler
ISD in 1952. In 1972 Universe was still considered "a residential
community with a church, cemetery and three businesses." In 1990 part
of the area had been designated the "Headache Springs Natural Park."

Two
smaller tombstones

Photo courtesy Lori Martin

Photographer's
Note: "I found this cemetery accidentally. There are no markers
or signs for the cemetery. The gates are hidden and the cemetery itself
is overgrown with weeds and small trees. There is a gate in the backyard
[of a house] that enters the cemetery. I looked around on the Internet
and found out that it is the Universe Cemetery." Lori Martin, January
2006

Vandalism
or tractor damage?

Photo courtesy Lori Martin

More
shards among the pine needles.

Photo courtesy Lori Martin

From the
rootsweb page for Tyler County:
The 3-acre unmaintained cemetery is at Latitude: N 32:20:08.4 - Longitude:
W 095:14:47.9 Directions: From downtown Tyler,
take Highway 64 E to CR274 (aka Nottingham Lane). Turn left. One half
mile on Nottingham Lane will bring you to the 9100 block. The entrance
to Headache Springs Park is a few hundred yards further north. Earliest
burial is 1871 and the most recent is March of 2001.